"It's the Experience, Idiot!"

In March, the brilliant and talented CEO of Granite Federal Union appeared before the Board of Directors and asked us to find a new CEO. In February, it was discovered that the “cold” he’d had since last summer was in reality an aggressive form of cancer in stage four. His doctors told him he had roughly nine painful months of life left.

While he dealt with first radiation and then chemotherapy, we began a rather longish search for a replacement. Tuesday, we came to the end of our search. But this blog post is not a tribute to the outgoing CEO or crowing about what a good find we have with the incoming CEO.

This post is about something that was reinforced (or re-discovered) while we looked for a new CEO. That something is the myth of the credit union “service advantage.”

We (you and me) hear it all the time. Credit Unions are better than banks not because the customer is a member of a Co-Op, or because the fees are much lower, but because they are community-based, and the service is “down-home” and makes you feel special.

Banks are big, bad, and treat you like an idiot.

Unfortunately, none of that is particularly true anymore. And even more unfortunately, because it is generally believed, no one pays any attention to it.

That lack of focus is the problem.

I remember well my first brush with Credit Unions. I was 16. I was finally making enough money from my paper route and mowing lawns that I needed a place to save it. Growing up, I almost always lived on an Air Force base, and since Dad was assigned to a Fighter Wing, and fighters tend to be very noisy jets, we always lived away from “civilization.”

That meant that the only stores, banks, theaters, sports and recreation close were on base and quite limited. There were two viable banking choices for me: Bank of America and Keesler Federal Credit Union.

My Mom took me into Bank of America. There we sat for waaaaay to long while the new accounts lady and one of the managers dealt with a “pain-in-the-ass” Lt. Colonel (never met one that wasn’t!) Finally, my Mom decided we’d waited long enough, and we went next door to Keesler.

The folks at Keesler didn’t really note my longish hair; my lack of an officer’s uniform and rank, or even that I was with my Mother. They just took care of me as if I were actually important to them.

I’d like to say that I never went back to a bank because the credit union experience was so good, but that isn’t true. After moving to Utah, there was no Keesler FCU. There was, however, a bank that appeared to be “The Bank” for Mormons – after all, the Statue of Brigham Young in downtown Salt Lake had his left hand out as if to say, “This is the Place.” I fell for that and opened an account there. After less than a year of poor experiences, I left for another and more, poor experiences.

Eventually, I found Granite CU. And it was such a difference from my banking experiences. They didn’t yet have checks – they were called Share Drafts in those days, but they did it all quite well for me. I’ve been a fan of the CU Movement since then too, having learned my lesson.

But over the years, Credit Unions have really become banks. They are getting bigger and they’ve lost track of what made them great. But it is not just “big” that has caused that loss of focus. Our lost direction has come because we have heard the hype for so long, decided it must be true, and we no longer think we need to do anything to support the propaganda.

There is so much more to good service than being able to greet 20 customers by name. In fact, if you think good service is in the teller line, at the new accounts desk, or in the manager’s office, you haven’t a clue. What happens there is simply common courtesy.

Good or Great Service is about the Total Experience. It is about Quality. Total Quality. Courtesy is simply the tip of the iceberg. It is the continuation of the total quality of the organization. Or not.

If the “back-office” people, processes and systems that support the transactions and services aren’t of a pretty high quality, then smiling, calling me by name, and asking about my kids won’t help. In fact, if those people, systems and process produce poor quality, it is going to be next to impossible to keep that genuine smile on the teller’s face for very long!

Credit Union management, volunteers and employees need to get out a bit, shop the competition, set up an account somewhere else, and compare the total experience. The gaps will be apparent. Only then, can we come together to bring that mythic service back to the CU experience.

If not … well, we’re just smaller, “down-home-friendly," Bad Banks!